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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Bahrain rattled by UK court’s opening of door to investigation of torture allegations

A failed effort by a public relations company representing
Bahrain and a UK law firm acting on behalf of Prince Nasser bin Hamad
al-Khalifa, the commander of Bahrain's Royal Guard and head of its National
Olympic Committee, to micromanage media coverage of this month’s lifting of
the prince’s immunity by a British court reflects mounting unease in the island
state and international sporting associations. The court decision opens the
door to a British police investigation into whether or not Prince Nasser was
involved in the torture of political detainees that could include three former players
for the Bahraini national soccer team.

The five-day long effort by UK-based Bell-Yard
Communications Ltd and London law firm Schillings was aimed at forcing this
writer as well as The
Huffington Post to adopt Bahrain’s narrow and partial
interpretation of the court decision. That interpretation involved an inaccurate assertion that no investigation into whether or not Prince Nasser had been
involved in torture of detainees could emerge from the court decision, that
immunity had not been part of the grounds on which the Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS) had initially refused to investigate, and that soccer players had
noting to do with the investigation.

The lawyers and PR representatives sought to have removed
any reference in this writer’s article to a potential investigation or that
immunity had played a role in the CPS’s thinking despite the fact that the
prosecution in a statement to the court agreed to the lifting of Prince
Nasser’s immunity in expectation that the Bahraini plaintiffs would submit
further evidence. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said after the court hearing that
the ruling opened the door to an investigation and that they would be providing
additional evidence.

This writer corrected after publication a factual error in the original story. The story originally reported that
an investigation had been opened rather than that the court ruling opened the
door to an enquiry.

Nonetheless, in attempting to prevent fair and honest
reporting, the lawyers and PR agents contradicted themselves. The attempt to
force deletions that would have substantially altered the core of the story
occurred despite the fact that Bell’s Melanie Riley had provided to this writer the statement
of the prosecution to the court.

The prosecution said in the statement that “in the light of
the Claimant’s intention to submit further evidence to the police (who are
responsible for investigating the allegations), the Crown Prosecution Service
has agreed to state to the police its view that immunity should not be a bar to
any such investigation on the evidence currently available.”

Bahraini concern that the possible fallout of the court
decision could affect not only Prince Nasser but also Sheikh Salman was evident
in an email from Ms. Riley assertion that “there is no relevance to the AFC of
yesterday’s proceedings.”

Sheikh Salman, according to information submitted to the
prosecution, headed a committee established in 2011 by a decree by Prince
Nasser to take measures against those guilty of insulting Bahrain and its
leadership. Prince Nasser formed the committee after an earlier royal decree
had declared a state of emergency. The royal decree allowed the Bahrain military
to crackdown on the protests and establish military courts, according to the
information provided to the prosecutor.

Sheikh Salman, a former soccer player who also serves as
head of the Bahrain Football Association, is running next year in AFC
presidential elections, which if he wins would give him an automatic seat on
the executive committee of world soccer body FIFA.

The prosecutor was further furnished with a publicly
available video clip in which Prince Nasser called for the punishment on
television of those including athletes who participated in anti-government
demonstrations. More than 150 athletes and sports officials, including the
three national soccer players, were arrested or dismissed from their jobs at
the time. Many have since been reinstated.

The failed Bahraini effort to micromanage reporting of
Prince Nasser’s case, involving insinuations that this writer’s report was
defamatory and demands that their unsolicited correspondence to a US publisher
not be reported on, reflects greater sensitivity to image and reputation of
Gulf states that also include the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, who stand
accused of violations of human and labour rights. All three states have been
put to varying degrees under the magnifying glass because of their hosting of
major events, including the 2022 World Cup, the 2020 World Expo, Formula-1
races and ambitions to host similar events like the Olympic Games as well as
their association with prominent educational and cultural institutions such as
New York University and the Guggenheim Museum.

The various states have used different strategies to counter
allegations of violations of human and labour rights. While Qatar has by and
large engaged with its critics, Bahrain and the UAE have sought to prevent
negative reporting by barring critical journalists and academics from entering
their country.

Qatar, despite its engagement with human rights groups and
trade unions, has not been immune to such tactics. Saleem Ali, a former
visiting fellow at the Qatar-funded Brookings Doha Center, told The New York
Times that he was advised during his job interview that he could not take
positions critical of the Qatari government. At the same time, Qatar has sought
to win hearts and minds in the United States with the establishment of Al
Jazeera America, part of its global television network, and the expansion in
the US of its belN sports television franchise.

Qatar’s strategy backfired when Britain’s Channel Four
disclosed that the Gulf state had hired Portland Communications founded by Tony
Allen, a former adviser to Tony Blair when he was prime minister, to create a
soccer blog that wrongly claimed to be “truly independent” and represent “a
random bunch of football fans, determined to spark debate,” but in fact served
to attack its detractors.

For its part, the UAE has spent lavishly on public relations
engaging, according to The Intercept, a US firm to demonize Qatar because of
its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups. The UAE is
also suspected of supporting a network of Norway and France-based human rights
groups that sought to project the Emirates as a champion of human rights
despite crackdowns that have involved political trials denounced by
international human rights groups and derided Qatar’s record.

Disclosing the UAE’s efforts to shape reporting in the US
media, The Intercept noted that “the point here is not that Qatar is innocent
of supporting extremists… The point is that this coordinated media attack on
Qatar – using highly paid former U.S. officials and their media allies – is
simply a weapon used by the Emirates, Israel, the Saudis and others to advance
their agendas.”

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies as Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of
Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile